Zionists Destroying Palestinian Farmland

*the destruction begins as far as 700 metres from the border

Bulldozer treads had torn through bean and onion crops, in zigs and zags, leaving some but destroying most. Swaths of land were eaten by the military bulldozers’ blades: the wheat crop which might mature to waist high if not bulldozed was left to grow, but the calf-high beans and onions were mowed.

The 100 or so olive trees that had escaped the winter 2008-2009 “Israeli” massacre of Gaza and prior and later military invasions this time went with the 4 towering military bulldozers and 3 tanks.

Tracks spat out earth in clumps, not to be worked again this year, difficult to calm and smooth next year, in an area (near, but still outside of the Zionist-imposed 300 metre no-go zone, the “buffer zone”) where tractors fear to come and leave at first Zionist gunshot.

Abu Taima was withered, beaten today. He was still dignified, dressed in his casual grey suit, still stood tall and spoke odes to the land… but he paled, he was ill, he said, when he thought of and finally saw the destruction of their land.

We start our walk of remorse, documenting the wake of the military machines on freshly-till and sowed land. More crushed and severed irrigation pipes, scarce and highly expensive in a Strip 1000 days under full-siege (from June 2007, although truly the siege began when Hamas was elected. Journalist Amira Hass would say the siege began shortly after the Oslo “peace” accords).

We stumble on mounds of bulldozer tracks, heaving the land upwards. We eye the sabr, that resilient cactus plant that grows roadside and re-emerges after each invasion, taking years to re-gain its former glory and fruit-bearing fertility. It lies flattened, smudged between bulldozer treads. It will possibly make good fire fuel, but its more important value is roadside and thriving, a home for the small birds that flit to and fro singing of life in the most impossible places: the cactus itself and the border regions of Gaza under occupation.

We see the heaving land mashed with would-be lentils and beans, swirls of bulldozer treads woven amidst the assaulted onion crops.

International Journalism Award From Mexican Press Club March 2017

about me

Eva Bartlett is an independent writer and rights activist with extensive experience in Syria and in the Gaza Strip, where she lived a cumulative three years (from late 2008 to early 2013). She documented the 2008/9 and 2012 Israeli war crimes and attacks on Gaza while riding in ambulances and reporting from hospitals.
Since April 2014, she has visited Syria 7 times, including two months in summer 2016 and one month in Oct/Nov 2016 and her latest visit in June 2017 (to Aleppo, Homs, al-Waer, Madaya, al-Tall, Damascus).
Her early visits included interviewing residents of the Old City of Homs, which had just been secured from militants, and visiting historic Maaloula after the Aramaic village had been liberated of militants. In December 2015, Eva returned to old Homs to find life returning, small shops opened, some of the damaged historic churches holding worship anew, and citizens preparing to celebrate Christmas once again.
On her 5th visit in June-August 2016, she went twice to Aleppo, also visiting: liberated Palmyra; Masyaf to interview survivors of the terrorist attacks on Aqrab and Adra; survivors of the May 23 terrorist attacks on Jableh & Tartous; and the Barzeh district of Damascus, as well as returning again to Maaloula and Latakia.
On her sixth visit to Syria, in October and November, she visited Aleppo twice more, as well as areas around Damascus. The testimonies Eva gathered in Aleppo starkly contrasted narratives corporate media had been asserting.
On her seventh visit to Syria in June 2017, she revisited Aleppo, including going to eastern areas formerly terrorist-occupied, finding that hospitals had been militarized, basements turned into prisons. She also went to the highly-propagandized over village of Madaya, as well as al-Waer, Homs, and al-Tall.
Many of her published Syria writings, videos, photos can be found at this link:
https://ingaza.wordpress.com/syria/
A more detailed account of her activism and writings can be found here:
https://ingaza.wordpress.com/about-me/